


The Long Game

by Sotano



Series: Krakoa is for two very specific mutants [4]
Category: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Dawn of X, House of X/Powers of X, M/M, What If? Powers of X
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-18
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:47:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26522425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sotano/pseuds/Sotano
Summary: Magneto's missing time. He's going to throw a wrench in plans neither he nor Charles could possibly understand. There's a Scotswoman trying very hard to fix everything in the universe, and two of her most important pieces are beingdifficult.Based off Powers of X (2019).
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier
Series: Krakoa is for two very specific mutants [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1819501
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	The Long Game

**Author's Note:**

> Now that X of Swords is starting, I can publish a nagging fear I had about how Dawn of X might have played out, being reasonably sure it isn't going to happen this way. Based on stuff gleaned from Powers of X #5 and #6. This isn't canon, think of it as one of Charles' nightmares. Those can tend to plague dreamers.

"Charles!" Erik cried, full fury of venom in his voice.  
  
A disturbance shook the island, which had been peaceful until a minute ago. The sound of wrenching metal broke Krakoa's tranquility, but it wasn't nearly enough to satiate Magneto's rage. He warped everything around him as he ascended the stairs to the Council hall at the Arbor Magna. With a casual wave of the arm, he cleaved the plate under the Council seats in two.  
Scott emerged from the stairway up to the other levels. "Erik," he said, suspicion heavy in his voice. "What's going on?"  
Magneto barely registered him.  
"No offense, Scott, but right now I'm a bit above your pay grade. Be a good boy and fetch your father for me."  
Scott's lips pursed. "If you took off your helmet, you'd know where he was."  
"And let whichever one of your girlfriends is presumably upstairs in? I think not."

Erik crushed the chairs, pulling the metal of the room towards the new fault line in the floor. He reached out for the metal on Cerebro, halfway across the island, and considered crushing it too. No. The red haze in his mind receded at the thought. He'd give the Professor a chance to explain, like always.

Scott was inching closer. Erik's other arm shot out, and his powers took Scott's visor. "One warning was enough."  
One of the chairs knocked Scott out onto the square. Magneto levitated himself to follow, just in time to see Magik's blue portal flash, and Charles standing in the plaza. A crowd had gathered.  
"Erik--"  
"--None of that, Charles."  
Magneto turned sharply and walked back inside. Charles could meet him alone. He felt the metal on Charles' head rather than look at him, and the second he felt it cross the threshold, he sealed the way in with the scrap metal from inside. Next, Magneto lifted Cerebro away. The confusion, concern, and hurt he saw on Charles' face barely had time to register before he felt another wave of fury hit him. He flung Cerebro aside more violently than he should have.

"Erik," Charles said simply. "Please. What's wrong?"  
"Don't play games with me, Charles," Erik snarled.  
"I really don't--"  
"--I'm missing time. There's a tiny black spot, about a day's worth of memories missing in my head, and I had to find out from that bastard Amahl Farouk."  
Charles frowned. "What--"  
"--You're the only person who's been in my head, Charles. What did you take from me? What are you hiding?"  
He was crowding over Charles, now. A familiar space, and the familiarity of all of this hurt _so badly_.  
"Erik, I didn't--"  
"--Don't pretend, Charles. You've done it before."

That shut the telepath up. Magneto saw tears glaze over his eyes in an instant, but that just made his own anger more agitated.  
"That's not fair. You were going to kill Logan. I--I admit that what I did was _wrong_ , but I can't... I couldn't..."  
"You couldn't kill me, back then, and you didn't see any other way of stopping me. Fine. What's your fucking excuse this time?"  
"I don't know," Charles said, and there was an honesty there that threatened to crack.  
  
"I thought you couldn't lie to me," Erik said, hollow, surveying Charles' face for anything to give him away. There had never been nothing there for him before. "I really thought this time neither of us would betray the other."  
"I'm not lying."  
"How can you _not_ \--" Erik paused. Oh. He turned away, pulling metal to him. "I'll kill her."

"What?" Charles asked, obviously too busy trying not to get caught in old memories to see the obvious.  
Erik didn't look at him. He levitated Cerebro. "How many times have you replaced your memories with one of the backups?"  
He knew understanding would be dawning now. "Twice," Charles said, his voice low. "Just twice." So he was missing time too.  
"Right at the beginning of all of this, I presume?" he asked, turning to watch his oldest friend again.  
Charles nodded.  
"So it's all a lie. Something made me leave and Moira wouldn't let that happen, and you went along with it. With her. And you fucked with my head, _again_."  
"I didn't think--I thought it was--she didn't tell me it had anything to do with you, Erik, I thought it was about something in the future I couldn't be allowed to see."

But it was still Charles. It was still Charles, who had made the call to wipe Erik's mind, and then restored himself to a backup, as if it had never happened. God damn it all, everything had been so perfect, so _right_ , he was almost angry with whatever past version of himself had walked away, no matter what he'd learned. He was so fucking furious with the world, that could never seem to leave him _be_ \--  
"Do you love her?" Erik asked, oddly calm. Charles took a moment, almost as surprised at the question as Erik was at having asked it. He watched the telepath try to calm himself. They were so good at this; tearing each other apart.  
"No. Not the way you mean it."  
"But you trusted her."  
"Erik, please. Don't shut me out."  
"When you came to me for help on Genosha, you told me to take my helmet off. You told me to trust you. To join you. Not her, _you_. Were we ever really partners?"

Charles looked so pained that Erik had a strange phantom limb reaction; the ghost of what he knew it would feel like in his head, if he took the helmet off. Charles' pain felt like the final shattering of something which had tried to bend. He'd gotten so used to Charles at his fingertips, in his mind. Used to an openness he'd been frightened of his whole life. But that was a lie, wasn't it? For Krakoa to work, there was something Charles had agreed to keep from him, and from himself. And now, Krakoa just didn't seem fucking _worth it_. Damn Moira MacTaggert for ruining Erik's last good thing. He could feel her no-space; her cradle somewhere deep beneath them. Charles still hadn't answered.

"Or was I just another problem to solve, so that the great Charles Xavier could be the man to save mutants and humans forever, like he's always wanted?"  
"I don't know!" Charles snapped. "I don't know what I was thinking, it's missing. I wish I could answer to you, my friend, but I can't."  
"Well, then," Magneto said coldly. "Let's find out, shall we?"  
He pulled upwards, ripping Moira's hideaway from under Krakoa, tearing a path through the heart of the island.  
"You're hurting him!" Charles cried, as Krakoa itself made a shrieking sound. The telepath fell to his knees as Moira's bubble emerged from the ruined Council floor. He made a guttural sound as the living island's pain subsided; as if he'd had the air knocked out of him. Erik hazarded a guess that every psychic on the island was in a similar state, but he really wasn't in the mood for placating anyone.  
  
"Out, MacTaggert," he called. "Charles and I have a few questions."

Moira looked entirely too calm, perhaps the result of a woman who had reincarnated nine times now. Each time she died, life began for her again, and everything reset to the day she was born. Erik felt hate rise like bile as Moira the Tenth watched him with wary brown eyes. "Erik. I'm sure this is all an _appropriate_ reaction."  
"I like to think so," Erik demurred. "What did you make Charles forget?"  
She sighed. "It doesn't matter now," she said, with a flair of the wrist. "Just your knowing ruins the gambit. Ah, well. Better luck next go. Maybe you and Charles will manage not to break each other next time 'round. Probably not, though, if the last ten have been any indication."  
"You can see how that wouldn't be a satisfactory answer," Charles said, still recovering.  
"Charles Xavier, I haven't given a fuck about your personal satisfaction for at _least_ six lives," she said with a sort of finality.

God, even now, they were falling into line. He felt that old pull of righteous indignation at any slight against Charles, and he was angry at himself all over again. His powers didn't seem to care. They aligned sharp scrap metal with Moira's neck.  
  
"You can see how this isn't a very serious threat," Moira said.  
  
"Do we keep existing, when you die?" Erik called out, half to himself. "I think right now I'm _just_ past the point of caring."  
He'd made his point. Moira raised her arms, with a very resigned look. He supposed he and Charles really were like toddlers compared to whatever the hell she was, but she stole his peace and Erik had never let a stupid thing like the very fabric of reality get in the way of his revenge before.

"I actually did feel bad about this," Moira said. "And all the other ways I've really screwed you over this time, Erik. And I feel even worse knowing I've wasted a timeline. Destiny said I only have so many left. Actually, my money was on Destiny ruining this one, or long odds on Sinister, so at least it's almost a refreshing surprise that it's you two again. It hasn't been you two to ruin everything in a while."  
Erik was rapidly losing patience. He bought the first two sentences, to the extent that he was fairly certain Moira _thought_ she felt bad, but the rest of it? "Tell me, am I supposed to feel guilty for being violated by the two of you?"  
Charles winced next to him. "He's... he's right, Moira. Just tell us. Maybe we can still--"  
"--And _there he is_. I was wondering when the Charles Xavier everyone _can't stand_ would join the conversation," Moira said. "Fine. You really want to know?"

Erik and Charles just watched her, expectant, until they glanced at each other. They'd both come to the same conclusion, down to the same second. She's _stalling_. Erik instinctively took a step forward, pulling Charles behind him.  
"Hey, Charles. When was Erik's last backup done? Yesterday night, along with everyone else's, would be my guess."  
"No," Charles said. "No, Moira. We'll find out again. And the others know bits and pieces. Whatever you have planned--"  
"Yes, you will," Moira said. "It'll be bloody difficult work, rebooting half the important people on the island. But Charles' paranoia gave us very thorough resurrection protocols, and as for the killing bit, Apocalypse found a tidy solution."  
"Apocalypse," Charles said, saddened. "So he's got control of Krakoa, too." Of course he'd be saddened by betrayal. Erik was fucking furious.

"Any minute now, Krakoa is going to be nuked. Oh, sorry, Erik, I saw that look. No metal. Nimrod tech, you understand. It will somehow slip the island's many defenses; but Krakoa will do its best to shelter us. I'm sure you'll have a very charged meeting at the Quiet Council about it tomorrow, when the members are revived."

Erik knew panic was rising, and he knew what he did when he didn't feel in control. "Charles--" he managed, almost a warning. He stepped back, as if there was somewhere he could go, some bit of heroism he could do. Moira watched him. She had a sort of weary look, and Erik knew she was doing this for their benefit, he just didn't know what that meant to someone who was playing a longer game than Magneto was capable of comprehending.

"By the way, Erik. Just to make the next two minutes or whatever a little more calm, I threatened Charles into doing it. I really didn't want to. I don't like doing any of this. But I've lived lifetimes across thousands of years and you two idiots really are essential to making this whole nightmare end. You think you understand the stakes, but you never will. You're both too _small_. Your backup is corrupted, Erik. A little fault in the code of your soul, that I know how to mask. A trick I picked up in another life. You'll live and die a thousand times if you like, but if I decide Charles can't reign you in, all I have to do is press a button, or say the word, and you never come back. The threat of an eternity without you is the coin I bought Charles with."

Magneto wheeled back to face Charles. The telepath was looking down.  
"You wouldn't," Magneto said.  
"I would. I'm sorry, Erik, but I would. I already did, apparently. And I will again."

Charles' sad, guilty smile was the kicker. Erik took his helmet off. * _It seems after all that, it was out of a petty little thing like selfishness._ * Charles said in his head.  
"But you just said you need the both of us," Charles said. "You can't take Erik off the board."  
"I can if the heartbroken Professor over here starts making the Five get a little less _ethical_ ," she said, jerking a thumb at Charles. "Want to know the over-under on how fast he makes them bring back a blank copy?"  
Something about that rang false. Surely it wasn't just Magneto's powers she needed. It was at least _conceivably_ a bluff; the best they'd done all conversation. The humor-deflection was something he recognized; he supposed all three of them had grown adept. Charles concurred in his head, and he turned to face his telepath.  


"So we're just going to do it all again?"  
"That, or you kill Moira and we _still_ do it all again."  
"It's tempting," Erik growled.  
* _It's honestly not unlike what I was stuck with in Farouk's mind. I played the long game in there. Maybe that'll work here, too._ *  
* _You're asking me to trust you._ *  
Charles shot him a tired smile, communicating so much more than the telepathy.  
* _I'm a telepath, darling. I already know you left a little metal hint at the bottom of the ocean. I don't know what failsafe she could possibly have for that, but I bet there's one anyway. I wish I could just back us up, but I'd need Cerebro and a few minutes to reset the protocols. For what it's worth, I'm sorry._ *  
Erik didn't really know what to say to that, which was a funny thing to communicate telepathically.

"You still haven't told us what made Erik leave," Charles said, turning to Moira. Magneto loved Charles for playing the game to the very end; he couldn't help himself.  
"And that, dear Charles, is for me to know and you to try and try and try to find out." Her expression softened. "At least in the meantime, you've got paradise? It's more than most will ever get."  
"It's not good enough. Not if it's built on a lie."  
Charles said it with a firmness that snapped something in Magneto. He remembered how the guilt ate at Charles, hollowed him inside, when he'd last tampered with Erik's mind, until he broke and fixed things, even though it had cost him everything. 

"You're lying to people right now. Does the average Krakoan know that we're fighting the fucking singularity, or do they think mutants' biggest problem is a couple of racists with _signs_?"  
"From one equivocator to another, Moira, that was low. Sometimes a difference of scale is a difference of kind, and whatever you feel the need to hide with a nuclear bomb on our island is worse than whatever Destiny may or may not have to say about the future."  
"It's going to be a long eternity," Moira said, with a sigh that was tired of the both of them and their ridiculous condescension. She stepped back through her private Paris gate, in the wreckage of her hideaway. She had lives to save, very much including the two children who thought they were old men behind her. 

They were alone, which meant things were probably about to go horribly wrong.  
"Is that what I sound like, when I monologue?" Magneto asked, because he couldn't think of a single better thing to say.  
Charles had the good grace to laugh, and took his hand and kissed it. "You're much more charming," he promised.  
Erik kissed him, just to get his arms around him, just because the world was ending, and he was supposed to. A bomb dropped from an orbital station run by anti-mutant fanatics. A hundred miles beneath them, etched on a shipwreck in unmistakable Krakoan, was the following: CHARLES. DON'T LISTEN. SHE NEEDS BOTH OF US, AND SHE'S BACK WITH APOCALYPSE. 

  
Charles woke up coughing orange liquid, shaky in a new, identical body. The last thing he remembered was lying on the couch with Erik, warm and at peace, as the resurrection backups processed. He had the nagging feeling, for whatever reason, that he should apologize for something. 

**Author's Note:**

> _I broke your heart last week you'll probably feel better by the weekend_


End file.
